Although the passage of the bill seemed a fait accompli since Democrats took control both of chambers of the General Assembly this session, that doesn’t make the move toward relationship equality any less noteworthy.

And it still faced considerable opposition from Republicans, but they were outnumbered this year, as opposed to last year when they controlled the House.

It seems like ages ago that the House GOP leadership stalled the civil unions bill, refusing to allow it up for a floor vote, but it was just last year. In 2011, a civil unions bill died in the House Judiciary committee, controlled by the GOP.

This time around, one Republican in the Senate and two in the House voted for civil unions. Sen. Jean White, R-Hayden, Rep. Carole Murray, R-Castle Rock, and Rep. Cheri Gerou, R-Evergreen, deserve respect for bucking their party and voting for equality.

Now, the bill heads to the governor’s desk where it will assuredly be signed into law. It’s a milestone for relationship equality in Colorado that will only be superseded when the state removes the constitutional barrier to gay marriage.

Coy Mathis, 6, talks with her dad in front of the state Capitol. (Joe Amon, The Denver Post)

It’s unfortunate that the district where a 6-year-old transgender Colorado girl was denied use of the girls’ bathroom at school is refusing to engage in mediation talks.

Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8 officials have declined the chance to work out the differences between the school district and the parents of Coy Mathis, a first-grader.

“It’s disappointing. Our goal is to get her in the environment she needs to be in. We just wanted to sit down and talk to the administrators as adults,” Kathryn Mathis, Coy’s mother, told the Gazette.

Coy was born with the anatomy of a boy, but as soon as she could express herself at about 18 months began to insist she was a girl. Coy was denied access to the bathroom at Eagleside Elementary School, and is being schooled at home.

As we said in a recent editorial, it’s unfortunate the district has taken such a hard line position on the matter. The law is not on their side, and they are just making matters more difficult for a child who already has many challenges before her.

In this day and age, with the Internet being used as a platform for transactions and information access, there seems to be little reason to traipse to public agencies to look at public records.

Even if a record isn’t electronic and is kept only on paper, it doesn’t seem to be too much to ask that public officials take the trouble to drop requested records into the mail, once copying and postage costs are paid, of course.

Yet, a provision in Colorado’s open records laws allows agencies to require in-person visits before public records are shared.

You don’t have to be in favor of adultery to oppose the government telling people who they can be intimate with. It’s as simple as this: It’s none of the state’s business.

This isn’t the first try at getting rid of the anti-adultery law. In 2011, Steadman and Kagan sponsored an identical measure. It passed the Senate, which was controlled by Democrats, but the measure also got five Senate GOP votes. However, it died in the House, which was held by Republicans.

At the time, Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University, told the Post that a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2003 that struck down a Texas sodomy law made adultery laws unconstitutional.

“It’s quite disappointing, if not embarrassing, for Colorado to affirmatively retain these types of laws,” Turley said. “These laws harken back to an earlier period, where a majority of citizens claimed the right to impose their values and morals on their neighbors.

“The notion of a government policing immorality runs against the grain of our constitutional system. That is more often associated with countries like Iran, where morality police roam the streets,” he said.

This time, we hope the the effort to repeal Colorado’s anti-adultery law makes it over the finish line.

Coloradans’ love for the outdoors is one of the things that unites the residents of this beautiful state.

That’s why news Monday that the state would get more than $2 million in grants to build a seven-mile stretch of trail in the Rocky Mountain Greenway, a trail in Estes Park and shuttles to the summit of Chimney Rock National Monument was like a ray of sunshine.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the award Monday in a visit to the region.

In a prepared statement, Gov. John Hickenlooper said the Rocky Mountain Greenway project will improve access to the outdoors for all Coloradans.

“These trails and open spaces will create excellent recreation oppportunities that are accessible from the Denver metro area and will help Coloradans in our goal to be the healthiest state.”

Completion of the Rocky Mountain Greenway, first proposed by Salazar and Hickenlooper in May, 2011, will result in a comprehensive trail system connecting three national wildlife refuges — Rocky Mountain Arsenal, Two Ponds, and Rocky Flats — to Rocky Mountain National Park and to hundreds of miles of trails in the Denver metropolitan area.

This greater connectivity will provide Denver area residents and visitors greater access to rivers, parks, open spaces and other outdoor wildlife-dependent recreation opportunities. The national wildlife refuges will anchor the trail network and offer additional birding, hiking, fishing and environmental education opportunities.

The Rocky Mountain Greenway partnership, including the State of Colorado, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, local municipalities and nongovernmental organizations applied for and received the $1,735,000 in funding through a Sarbanes Transit in Parks grant. The grant will provide for the initial design and construction of the western trail link, connecting Rocky Flats and Two Ponds national wildlife refuges to the Greater Denver trail system. The new trail link will be approximately 7 miles long.

Today’s announcement builds on the recent completion of the Greenway’s eastern trail link, which stretches about three miles from the Sand Creek trail to the visitor center at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.

Whatever you think of a bill in the Colorado legislature that would limit the size of gun magazines, isn’t it odd for proponents such as State Rep. Daniel Kagan, D-Cherry Hills Village, to lament the possible loss of a magazine manufacturer as a result?

Yet according to a Denver Post article, Kagan said he plans to bring an amendment Friday so that it is “clear that manufacturers will be able to still sell and transfer these high-capacity magazines to individuals in other states, the U.S. military and law enforcement. We want them (Magpul, a manufacturer of high-capacity ammunition magazines that has threatened to leave) to stay here in Colorado. It would be sad to see them leave.”

Notice that he wants Magpul to be able to still sell not only to law enforcement and the military but to “individuals in other states,” too. Really? Kagan thinks it’s intolerable for Coloradans to buy high-capacity magazines but has little problem with Coloradans building such magazines for shooters elsewhere?

Surely Coloradans are no less trustworthy with large-capacity magazines than residents of other states. And yet some of those trying to prevent Coloradans from buying such magazines are also working to ensure the export from this state of these same products.

Gun-rights supporters hold a banner at a pro gun rally at the Colorado Capitol on Jan. 19. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post)

Good news on the gun background check situation.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation reports they’ve reduced the wait time for a gun background check to three days, down from a week.

CBI reshuffled staff, and was able to bring down the wait times. That’s a positive development.

However, it shouldn’t take away from legislative efforts to impose a fee on gun buyers — probably in the $10 to $12 range — to pay for the check. As we have said previously, such a fee should cover the cost of the work, and no more.

Recently, CBI’s practice of not starting the clock, so to speak, on measuring processing times has been called into question. The agency is charged with meeting a federal three-day wait period deadline.

The president of the National Rifle Association criticized the practice when he was in Colorado earlier this month. CBI had asked Colorado’s Attorney General to look into the way it accounts for wait times.

As the gun control debates proceed at the Colorado legislature — with a number of pieces of legislation creating heated discourse — it’s good to see CBI take action to show it is responsive to concerns about wait times.

It’s hard to imagine what state youth hockey association officials were thinking when they suspended a coach for pulling his team off the ice to end a game that had gotten out of control.

They should have praised Steve Decker, but instead the coach was publicly chastised for not knowing Rule 633a. That’s the rule that says only officials can end a game.

Decker, who coaches a northern Colorado youth hockey team, apparently violated that rule Jan. 21 when he determined the game his kids were playing was getting out of hand. One of his players sustained a concussion. Another went to the emergency room.

It was a meaningless game in a tournament — in the sense that it had no impact on the outcome of the tournament — so he took the kids off the ice, and invoked the wrath of the Colorado Amateur Hockey Association.

Yes, it would appear the coach violated the rule, as written. But what of the unwritten agreement between parents and youth coaches that the adults guiding the team will keep the kids safe? That’s the bare minimum to be expected, with good sportsmenship and skill development coming next.

We hope the hockey association will lift their noses out of their rule books for a few minutes and reconsider their decision. It’s clear that a recalibration of priorities is in order.

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

Guidelines: The Post welcomes letters up to 150 words on topics of general interest. Letters must include full name, home address, day and evening phone numbers, and may be edited for length, grammar and accuracy.

To reach the Denver Post editorial page by phone: 303-954-1331

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The idea log The Denver Post editorial board shares commentary and opinion on issues of interest to Coloradans.